Small Talk
by Mara Beth
Summary: Arcee asks Knock Out if he's interested in speaking on behalf of a friend. Everything spirals downhill from there.
1. Chapter 1

"Knock Out, are you busy?" Arcee's voice came through the visitor's speaker. He glanced up from his waxing to look at the camera he had rigged to view the outside hall. She had just leaned off of the buzzer and had crossed her arms.

"No, not remotely," he said, a tinge of bitterness to his voice, though Arcee's body language didn't indicate that she had noticed. He set his supplies back under the berth and went to unlock the door. "Yes?"

She didn't waste any time getting straight to the point. "We're having a ceremony for the ones who perished on Earth. We wanted to ask you to say something for Breakdown."

Internally, Knock Out winced. Up until now, he had avoided conversations involving Breakdown. It was awkward enough attempting to get used to casual- maybe even friendly- interaction with people he had enjoyed hurting.

His sentence was redoing the entirety of his medical training under Ratchet, which, in his opinion, may have been worse than being offlined, though the Autobots swore it was lightened sentence due to his change in allegiance. Other than that, everyone was rather light on him- especially after they recovered Breakdown's corpse. He failed to mention that he himself had contributed to the terrible mutilation of the body.

Breakdown dealt his fair share of blows, but around the end of his run he took quite a few more. Silas, Airachnid, and eventually, Knock Out himself, in a revenge-fueled fury, had tortured and ruined Breakdown's body even further.

"Knock Out, are you going to come to the ceremony or not?" Arcee gave him a quick tap on the arm. He looked up and rapidly shuttered his optics a couple of times, realizing he had spaced out to think.

"The body?"

"Excuse me?"

"The body. Breakdown's. Did they do anything to it?"

Arcee looked at him for a moment. "It's still in the casket. We were going to leave it closed."

"Can I..." Knock Out's vocal processor started spitting static and he immediately offlined it. Breakdown's remains were torn apart. He gave it a few moments to clear out, Arcee respectfully waiting, before he spoke again. "May I prepare the body?"

"I don't have the authority to approve that, I'll ask Ultra Magnus. You would like to say something, though?"

"Yes. I would." Arcee nodded and turned to leave. "Wait."

She paused. "Yes?"

"Why did they send _you_ to ask me?"

She looked at him for a moment. "I asked if I could."

He gave her a half-suspicious look before repeating himself. "Why?"

"Airachnid killed Breakdown." Her optics constricted a bit.

"Yes..."

"Airachnid killed Tailgate." Knock Out's blank look prompted her to elaborate. "I sympathize with you. She took out each of our partners. The spider's a glitchspawn."

"Hm."

"Hm."

Both stood in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes.

Knock Out cleared his vocal processor before asking "Did you ever see him come back? Tailgate?"

"Come back?"

"Breakdown did. Well, not Breakdown, but his body." Knock Out noticed Arcee's figure go stiff.

"I didn't see Tailgate come back, no."

He waited to see if she was going to speak any further, and when she offered up nothing more, he continued. "Silas took it. Breakdown's body. He used it. Fused himself with it."

"I... heard about that. Saw some of it. " Arcee's optics were clouded over. Knock Out could tell her mind had gone somewhere else.

"I tortured him."

"Hm?"

"Silas. I tortured him." She looked at him blankly, and he shuffled a bit until he was leaning on the wall. "I don't regret it. I'm supposed to apologize for my war crimes, but I don't regret that one."

She seemed to consider this for a moment, and Knock Out, simply from watching her optics, could tell that her hatred for this being was replacing whatever horror she was reliving. "You don't need to regret it."

"Oh?" Knock Out seemed almost amused.

"He was a monster. Human, maybe, but still a monster." The medic nodded in agreement before Arcee continued. "I thought humans were pure until I came across that piece of slag."

Silence again. Knock Out changed the subject.

"Did you lot end up killing Airachnid?"

"What? No. She was stasis-locked. I thought she got taken out of the first base when it was destroyed."

"Well, yes, but..."

Arcee's optics narrowed. "But _what_."

"There were some experiments. With dark and synthetic energon."

"On Airachnid?"

"No. On Silas. But-" Knock Out hesitated as he considered how to explain the terrifying phenomenon. "...Did you ever watch human films?"

"Some."

"Are you familiar with the concepts of zombies or vampires?"

"Yes."

"The infected were both of them." Knock Out let it sink in, watching Arcee put two and two together.

"Oh. Primus."

"Yes. Well." He paused. "There was a scuffle in the vault..." Arcee stared in horror. "And Airachnid was being stored in there..."

"For the love of... Scrap, she's not on Earth, is she?!"

"No! No."

"Well, where is she?!"

Knock Out edged towards a window and pointed to the second moon.

"Knock Out!" She turned on him, and the subtle sound of her servos attempting to transform into blades or blasters did not escape his notice. "Why haven't you told anyone?!"

He shrugged. "She's probably starved to death by now. No energon."

"We need to _check!_"

"Mm, yes, perhaps we should. It would be nice to see her corpse."

"Come on, we have to tell Magnus." She grabbed him by the wrist and started dragging him down the hallway.

Knock Out swore violently. There was no way Magnus would let him repair Breakdown after this.


	2. Chapter 2

**I wanted to write a death scene. It didn't go well. I decided to tack it onto this oneshot.**

* * *

The last Insecticon fell to the ground, its wings giving a final twitch before it ceased all movement. Arcee retracted her blasters and dusted her servos off. "All in a day's work, right, Knock Out?" She turned to face him, hand on her hip.

He was just gaping. She frowned. "It's not like you've never seen me fight before." She watched his face, followed his optics as they tilted downwards. Then she saw it.

His servos shaking, energon dripping down his frame, his entire face contorted in agony. A long, metallic, pointed object protruding from his chest.

"Oh, Primus, no." She grabbed one of his arms as he slumped forward. "Knock Out, Knock Out, listen to me. Tell me how to fix this."

His head rolled lazily to look at her. He was quiet. Trying to get power to his vocalizer seemed like a very taxing thing. "Breakdown," he finally spat out.

"What?"

"Have..." He went quiet again, grimacing, optics offlining. "Have Bulkhead say something. He... he knew him. Sort of."

"Knock Out. Shut up. Tell me how to fix this."

"Can't." He seemed to be attempting to grin at her. "Spark chamber's been... grazed... my spark energy's leaking out. Nothing... to do about it."

Arcee steeled herself and looked- really looked- at the object buried in Knock Out.

It was a leg.

Airachnid's leg.

Arcee's optics snapped back up to look at the mech. "Where is she."

He attempted to gesture, to show Arcee where to go, but his servo only raised an inch or so before dropping again. "Ah... she's over there somewhere... in pieces. She won't bother you... anymore."

"Knock Out, how?"

"Buzzsaw... works wonders. I didn't realize... why she wasn't running... until I saw... well, this." He weakly raised his servo again, and Arcee noticed he was referring to the appendage embedded in his torso. "Didn't feel it... 'till the combat protocols... shut off."

Arcee, at this point, decided the best thing to do was ease him through his final moments. She had only done this a few other times. Once the war ended, she thought she'd never have to watch the spark leave another Cybertronian's eyes again.

"...You should've saved some of her, Knock Out. I wanted her dead just as much as you."

"Ah, I did! I saved... a little for you..." He seemed to be trying to smile again as he gestured to the piece of metal that was slowly killing him.

Arcee laughed. Laughed at this sick, twisted humor he was attempting, and she idly thought that maybe he too was attempting to ease himself through the pain.

Then he spoke. All the humor had left his voice. "Arcee."

"Yes?"

"The Pit. Am I... going to the Pit?"

"Nobody goes to the Pit. You'll become one with the Allspark."

"But... I've done things..."

"No, Knock Out, you aren't going to the Pit."

"But if I do... and I see..." his vocalizer spat static. "Ah... if I see Breakdown again... in the Pit... that would be good."

"Knock Out, you'll become one with the Allspark. Breakdown will be there."

He finally managed a smile at that thought. "Have my frame... repaired... I don't want to be buried with a... ruined finish."

"Alright. I'll make sure."

"Thank you." And his entire frame went limp, optics and vocalizer offlining.


End file.
